. According to one article, in a survey, 45% of Americans dread the holiday. There are a number of reasons for the higher reported incidence of depression. Not the least of them is the desire to participate in gift giving, yet being financially unable to do so. Another reason is the number of families that spend time together out of guilt born of a religion that insists we must forgive those who abuse us, rather than because they actually like one another or enjoy each other’s company. It’s no wonder that dread is the most associated emotion with this “holiday”.

As a child, I remember that sense of dread at having to return to school after Christmas. Every year, children compared their gifts. That comparison was a form of competition that served to reestablish and reinforce, the social hierarchy. The children who’d received the most, and most expensive, gifts were assured a position at the top. Those who’d received few gifts were publicly shamed, just as their parents were made to feel inadequate as providers.

Christmas is also the holiday that trains us to accept material possessions in place of time and love. Families in which both parents work often experience guilt about their relative absence from their children’s lives, guilt which can be temporarily assuaged for the right price. Material possessions then come to represent love, due to the time and effort it takes to earn the money to buy them. In this equation, time equals money and money equals love. It is this equation which has made us a nation of hoarders.

Christmas, more than any other holiday, is designed to be used as a tool to show off financial success for those who’ve achieved it, and to use social pressure for those who haven’t to go into debt in order to be able to participate in holiday activities. Christmas is a time in which people are bombarded by advertising depicting happy, healthy families spending time together and exchanging gifts. These commercials often cost more than feature length films to produce. Their depictions of family are in sharp contrast with the reality of family life under capitalism.

In reality, according to the National Association for Mental Health, about 1 in 5 adults, 18.5% or 3.8 million people, experience some form of mental illness during any given year. The link between poverty and mental illness is also well-documented. According to the Census Bureau, from 2009 to 2012, 34.5 percent of the population lived in poverty for at least 2 months during the last year. In 2014, 21%, or 15.5 million children lived in poverty. 53% of adults without any stable housing, have one or more children under the age of five.​The percentage of parents that go into debt to provide these symbols of love for their children is estimated to be as high as one in three. This further fuels the cycle of poverty, as well as further increasing the already socially destructive level of the power of banks. Americans are presented with sales data after every holiday season, and applauded for doing their patriotic duty in contributing to the economy through their purchases. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather receive the gift of time from loved ones than have to know they’re paying interest on a material substitute for it.